Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) subsidiary Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) has extended a long-term agreement to provide MidAmerican Energy with up to 115,000 MMBtu/d of firm-transportation service starting in December. The new agreement, which will continue through Nov. 30, 2004, represents an increase over the current level of 100,000 MMBtu/d. The companies also entered into an agreement to extend a firm-storage contract totaling 10 Bcf for an additional two years through Nov. 30, 2005.

“These contracts will provide NGPL with another source of stable, fee-based income and continue the long-standing relationship that we have with MidAmerican, our largest customer in Iowa,” said KMI CEO Richard D. Kinder. “Renewing contracts with existing customers is one of the cornerstones of our success.”

Kinder added that NGPL has now extended firm service agreements with Nicor, WE Energies, Nipsco and MidAmerican which represent 45% of NGPL’s firm capacity to the Chicago area market. In addition to renewing these key contracts, NGPL recently completed construction of a lateral pipeline project to extend natural gas transportation service into the metro area east of St. Louis.

NGPL, which is expected to contribute more than 40% of KMI’s expected cash flow this year, is a 10,000-mile natural gas pipeline system with peak deliverability of 5.7 Bcf/d.

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